#BBC singers

[blackswaneuroparedux]

The National Theatre has just announced it will ‘reduce activity’ over the next four years due to ‘financial challenges’. English National Opera is on its final year of funding. The BBC Singers have been abolished. Britten Sinfonia has launched a £1 million appeal to enable it to survive Arts Council cuts. A quarter of the seats in BBC orchestras are to be unwaged. Cities the size of Liverpool, Norwich and Southampton have been left without opera. The post-1945 English artistic renaissance has gone into abrupt reverse, without much political debate. Darkness descends. Discuss.

- Norman Lebrecht

The axe of cultural vandalism is in full swing against anything classical. The BBC is the biggest employer of musicians in the UK, and to lose one in five of their orchestral players will create a black hole for musicians already stymied by visa restrictions and thus wider opportunities traditionally afforded them. The end of the BBC Singers, in particular, is heartbreaking - founded nearly 100 years ago, they have given both comfort and joy to the nation. 

Photo: The BBC Singers.

[nonesuchrecords]

Seeing Oppenheimer this weekend? Get ready with a listen to John Adams’ opera Doctor Atomic, performed by Gerald Finley, Julia Bullock, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and BBC Singers conducted by the composer here.

And sure, you can listen to it before seeing Barbie too.

[ravenclawfromdistrictfour]

the arts are dying and this is why

[viola-halogen]

Also Kitty saying “although I might not be an international superstar yet” like she’s planning on becoming one is so fitting with the last Christmas episode and how much she enjoyed acting.

I support her career aspirations.

[plus-low-overthrow]

Renee Geyer - It's A Man's Man's World (RCA)

wrt. James Brown, female version, 1975.

Australian artist.

Flutes & Synths

[sbrown82]

Marsha Hunt (and her glorious hair) playing the role of “Bianca” in the BBC television production of Othello (1990).

[oh2e]

Amina and Noor’s conversation about being judgy got me tearing up but then Ayesha’s coming out/not coming out thing and Bisma’s whole ‘who am I’ crisis….this episode is covering a lot of important points

[casboobs]

saw fanart of hozier as a knight and i'm like cool but does gwaine from bbc merlin mean nothing to you ???

[darlinhutchence]

"Get your white trash asses moving!" - Michael Hutchence

[consult-sherlockholmes]

Lana del Rey or Taylor Swift?

Lana del Rey, obviously. Her songs are much more melancholic, darker and dramatic and I do enjoy a touch of the dramatic, more instrumentally heavy with string instruments often being featured which I personally prefer. It sounds ethereal, like a siren's song, and has a slight touch of the past, sounding vintage and haunting. And I prefer her voice over Taylor's, because it sounds deeper and richer. Her music has more of a unique style, while Taylor Swift's majority of songs are more common pop songs that appeal to the masses, although Swift does have unique songs as well, it's quite different to Lana del Rey's style. They are both their own unique singers with differing styles, genres and focus of their music, so of course it's not truly comparable, I just prefer this personally out of the two. Although I do enjoy both of their songs.

[itsmakingyoucry]

if you’re gonna make merlin a singer/artist I want him gyrating grinding against the stage I don’t want any of that sitting on a stool playing a guitar shit if he isn’t bordering on being a stripper then I don’t want it because merlin is a slut and we ALL need to accept that

[daheckinbestbitch]

Modern AU. Merlin is famous indie rock artist Emrys. After his first viral single "Dragonlord" he climbed the charts quickly becoming one of Europe's biggest stars. His manager Gwen, has recently gotten him a meeting with one of the biggest record labels in all of Europe Pendragon Records run by CEO Uther Pendragon, although its his son Arthur who deals with most of the clientele.

Merlin was pretty nervous about his meeting with Pendragon Records, they were the biggest record company in Europe, some people even think that the Pendragon's themselves were descended from old royalty. When they walked into the the building Merlin could see why. This whole place screamed rich, as Gwen walked up to the front desk to let them know Emrys had arrived, Merlin couldn't help but stare at the wall of platinum records, the name Ygraine caught his eye that was his mother's favorite singer, and the late wife to Uther Pendragon, the CEO and founder of Pendragon Records.

"Mr. Emrys," a voice called, Merlin turned to see a tall man with curly blonde hair,

"If you will follow me, we can get started," Merlin nods as he and Gwen follow the man into an office, and leaning against the desk Merlin sees the most handsome man he thinks he has ever seen,

"Arthur this is Emrys and his manager Gwen," the curly haired man said,

"Thank you Leon, and it is wonderful to meet you Mr. Emrys," Arthur said shaking both Gwen and Merlin's hands,

"Merlin! You can call me Merlin, Mr. Pendragon," Merlin said stuttering, Arthur nodded chuckling as he sat down at his desk,

"Well, Merlin. You can call me Arthur. Now let's get too it, is Pendragon Records the right fit for Emrys and the brand he has created?"

[A/N: should I end up writing more of this i am not sure yet. I just had the fun thought of this as a fun merthur fic idea. Let me know]

[leo-lem]

Chapters: 1/10 Fandom: Merlin (TV) Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Merlin/Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Gwen/Morgana (Merlin), Gwaine/Lancelot/Merlin (Merlin) Characters: Merlin (Merlin), Arthur Pendragon (Merlin), Morgana (Merlin), Gwen (Merlin), Lancelot (Merlin), Gwaine (Merlin), Elyan (Merlin), Uther Pendragon (Merlin), Hunith (Merlin), Gaius (Merlin) Additional Tags: Band Fic, Alternate Universe - Human, Modern Era, merlin starts a band, BAMF Morgana (Merlin), Besotted merlin, besotted Arthur, they/she morgana, they/he pronouns for lance, lead singer merlin, wyllt and the clovers, basically theyre in a band and its a meet cute situation, In the works, More tags to be added, might have angst, Tattoos, Shows Summary:

a tale of a besotted lead singer to upcoming indie band Wyllt and the Clovers, who falls for a man he sees in the crowd. problem is, they tend to talk too much and can't get past the awkward stage in their relationship from strangers to friends to lovers.

hello there fellow humans. first chapter is up! probably gonna post the second early tomorrow or later tonight. depends on how frisky im feeling !

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Mona Baptiste was a 21-year-old Trinidadian blues singer, registered as a clerk for the voyage. Six weeks after disembarking, she was singing on the BBC's Light Programme, and would go on a successful tour of English theatres and perform on TV shows, including the Ken Dodd show on the BBC. She went on to develop a hugely successful career as a singer in the UK and Germany.

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[canadachronicles]

Rows and flows of angel hair And ice cream castles in the air And feather canyons everywhere Looked at clouds that way But now they only block the sun They rain and they snow on everyone So many things I would have done But clouds got in my way I've looked at clouds from both sides now From up and down and still somehow It's cloud illusions I recall I really don't know clouds at all

An oldie but still very much a goodie as Joni Mitchell showed performing it on the Grammys stage, listening to Both Sides Now always moves me almost to tears.

[kayotic-idiot]

How the uk could send non-english entries

So I feel like there's a couple ways that this could happen. The uk is incredibly diverse and contains so many cultures it would be awesome to see that represented on the eurovision stage.

The first way this could happen is sending in a song in cymreag (welsh), gàidhlig (scottish gaelic), Erse (irish gaelic) or Kernewek (the cornish language). It would be awesome to see these old celtic languages be represented at eurovision and may encourage brits to learn those languages. I know that cymraeg was tested at junior esc and didnt do too well but thats junior esc. I think it would do far better at regular esc, especially in the current shift towards native language songs. Might even place left side.

Second way I can see this happening is a bit dumber, theres nothing forcing any country to sing in any language. I mean, just look at the time belgium sent in a song in a made up language, TWICE. Imo I think it would be funny if the bbc rolled a dice or threw a dart at a map to decide what language to enter in. There is literally nothing stopping us from entering in Polish or Italian or really any european language.

Third way is a more serious suggestion. The uk as mentioned is hugely diverse. Where I live theres a lot of ugandan-indians and ghanaians and north-indians and a surprisingly high number of polish people. Point is that the uk has a huge variety of languages and cultures to send entrans from. Imagine a eurovision entry in hindi or gujarati etc. It would be so cool to see that part of the Uk represented on such a huge stage.

I know that there are issues with all of these ideas but the UK has been sending songs in english for so long it would be nice to see something a bit different, and it might encourage other countries to send songs in their own languages instead of defaulting to english.